Ewens v. Newman

HENDERSON, J.,

pro

tem.

The defendants Newman and Saavedra appeal from a judgment for $12,500, entered against them on the verdict of a jury as damages for the wrongful death of Git Wong, the father of three minor children, "as the result of injuries sustained by him as a passenger in an automobile hired from the defendant Newman, and negligently operated by his employee, the defendant Saavedra. This action was brought by the respondent, in her representative capacity, for the benefit of the three minor children, pursuant to the provisions of section 377 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

It is urged that the evidence shows no negligence on the part of defendants proximately causing the accident, and that, on the contrary, the testimony clearly shows that it was a case of unavoidable accident. Briefly stated, the testimony, which was conflicting, showed the following facts most favorable to plaintiffs: The accident occurred at the intersection of Main and Thirty-first Streets in the city of Los Angeles as the result of the collision of an automobile, occupied by decedent and driven by appellant Saavedra in a northerly direction on said Main Street with an automobile driven by defendant Patterson in an easterly direction on said Thirty-first Street. The defendant Patterson, in low gear and at a speed of about five miles an hour, entered and proceeded across the intersection, and when the front portion of his automobile had passed the center line of Main Street it was struck by the automobile operated by defendant Saavedra at a speed of approximately forty miles per hour. Bearing in mind the testimony just summarized, further comment respecting the foregoing objections is obviously unnecessary as a justifiable inference of negligence can readily be drawn therefrom.

We are also called upon to declare that the verdict is contrary to law and necessarily based on speculation and conjecture since neither testimony of decedent’s life expectancy nor of the pecuniary loss to which his heirs would be subjected is in the record. However, it was shown that

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he was about sixty years of age at the time of his death, and in determining his life expectancy we may take judicial notice of the mortality tables in common use.